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Slide 5Copyright 2002 Zope Corporation. All rights reserved. Python in a Tie Result of stability discussion on c.l.py Plan: –pick a release and maintain it for 18+ months –bleeding edge development releases continue Purpose: –have a reliable target for commercial users –stability more important than latest features Which release???? –Python 2.2.x most likely candidate See BOF on Friday

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Slide 9Copyright 2002 Zope Corporation. All rights reserved. "No Uncontroversial Topics" The yearly recap of a recent flame war It's a growth opportunity! QOTY: –"When a group becomes large enough there are no uncontroversial topics any more." –Erik van Blokland (in personal email) This year's topic: –to bool or not to bool

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Slide 10Copyright 2002 Zope Corporation. All rights reserved. Why bool()? I always regretted having left it out If it's not built-in, people define their own Explicit is better than implicit: "return True" A bool result is distinguished in output –>>> x == y True >>> "bool(x)" normalizes Booleans –was "not not x" RPC tools can special-case Booleans

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Slide 18Copyright 2002 Zope Corporation. All rights reserved. Pace of Change Users demand a stop to all new features except for their personal favorite –this contradiction seems unavoidable What do do about this? Is Python-in-a-tie sufficient? "Would you rather..." [idea due to Barry] –learn more syntax or use a library module? –understand a deep concept or have fuzzy rules? –fix design mistakes or be backwards compatible? –use indentation or braces? :-)

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Slide 20Copyright 2002 Zope Corporation. All rights reserved. Python 3.0 No release schedule either :-) Not within two years Question: what to focus on??? Zope 3 experience may be relevant –Rebuild from scratch Refactor mercilessly during development No concern for backwards compatibility –But learn from past: good ideas, bad ideas Use coding "sprints" –Later, add compatibility (Zope 3x -> Zope 3) –Or: Later, merge best features back into 2.x